The present invention relates to an apparatus for storing and dispensing a desired number of spherical objects.
Apparatuses or automatic machines for storing golf balls and, as desired, dispensing a number of golf balls are becoming increasingly common at driving ranges, both indoors and outdoors. Their frequency of use is high both indoors and outdoors. The machines placed outdoors become particularly sensitive to disturbance because they are exposed to the most widely varying weather conditions, in addition to other operational problems which occur. Golfers and the owners of the driving ranges place extremely high demands on the operational reliability of such machines, and also their rapidity in dispensing the desired number of golf balls. Moreover, it is desirable for the golfers to be able to obtain an exact number of golf balls from an automatic device or a magazine containing a large number of golf balls.
The object forming the basis of the present invention is to provide an improvement of prior art machines and to satisfy the above-outlined need.
This task is solved by means of the present invention. The device according to the present invention greatly improves operational reliability in apparatuses for storing and dispensing golf balls in the exact number of golf balls desired by the golfer. An apparatus including a device according to the present invention is further expected to have a considerably longer service life than prior art apparatuses, above all because of its considerably simpler mechanical construction.